OCTOBER 29 -There are indications the Chinese
Coast Guard have left Scarborough Shoal, one week after President
Rodrigo Duterte visited China to repair strained ties, his spokesman
said Friday. PHOTO FROM ASIA MARITIMES.NET FOLLOWING President Rodrigo Duterte’s state visit to China, Chinese
Coast Guard ships are no longer in the waters around Panatag
(Scarborough) Shoal, Malacañang announced on Friday. Presidential
spokesman Ernesto Abella told reporters Filipino fishermen have been
fishing at Panatag Shoal in the past three days without interference
from the Chinese Coast Guard. “Regarding fishing in Scarborough Shoal,
for the past three days it has been observed that there are no longer
any Chinese Coast Guard vessels and that Filipino fishing boats are no
longer being intercepted and that they are now able to fish in the area
without being intercepted,” Abella said during a news conference. READ
MORE...RELATED, China still guarding shoal but Filipino
fishermen back—Lorenzana...RELATED(2) Pinoys able to fish freely, undisturbed...

ALSO BIG
CATCH IN PANATAG:
Zambales fisherfolk see merry Christmas
[RELATED: Filipino fishermen back from Panatag Shoal with big catch]

OCTOBER 31 -Fisherman Archie Macosta shows his catch from Scarborough
Shoal to reporters yesterday. CESAR RAMIREZ STA. CRUZ, Zambales, Philippines –
Residents here look forward to a merry Christmas after learning that
fellow Filipino fishermen have gone back to Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal
and returned home with a big catch unharmed. “They were no longer shooed
away,” Oscar Tabat Sr. from Riverside, Sta. Cruz, Zambales told The STAR
yesterday. “They were already allowed to fish again in Scarborough.”
Tabat was quoting other fishermen who arrived yesterday from Scarborough
Shoal aboard two bancas in Cato, Pangasinan. He said his village learned
about the fishermen’s successful catch from excited fish buyers in their
village. READ MORE...RELATED, Filipino fishermen back from Panatag Shoal with big catch...

OCTOBER 30 -More and more Filipino fishermen are sailing back to Panatag
(Scarborough) Shoal to fish, without any "intimidation" from the Chinese
Coast Guard. A Balitanghali report on
Sunday said at least 10 Filipino fishing vessels have resumed fishing in
the disputed shoal, one of them has been at the area for the last five
days, while another one for the last three days. The report said three
Chinese Coast Guard vessels were spotted circling the shoal's perimeter
but were not "intimidating or blocking" the Filipino fishermen. Just
three months ago, in October, Chinese Coast Guard not only drove away
Filipino fishermen but also seized their catch and fishing equipment.
"Iyong huli namin, pinagtatapon nila. Iyong mga gamit namin, mga kawil,
kinukuha din nila tiinatapon nila [noon]," Jon, one of the Filipino
fishermen, said in a separate 24 Oras report Saturday evening. "Itapon
nila, bago, iyong iba, kuhanin nila [at] i-karga nila," he added. READ
MORE...

ALSO:
US assessing situation at Panatag [ALSO: Duterte's staunch oppositionist De Lima seeks probe on
pacts signed in China]

OCTOBER 29 -Fishermen on the boat Ruvina drop
anchor in Infanta, Pangasinan after a surprisingly bountiful sortie in
Masinloc. Their nets got filled in just a few days because suddenly,
Chinese coast guard rubber boats did not drive them away or stop them
from fishing. This, as incoming president Duterte finally met with
Beijing's ambassador to Manila. THE United States is
verifying reports that Chinese coast guard vessels have finally opened
up Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal) to Filipino fishermen. In a news
briefing in Washington on Friday (Saturday morning in Manila), State
department spokesman Mark Toner said the US was aware of the reports and
was “assessing” the situation at Panatag. “[We are] still assessing. We
hope it is certainly not a temporary measure,” the State department
official said. On Friday, Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella told
reporters Filipino fishermen have been fishing at Panatag Shoal in the
past three days without interference from the Chinese coast guard. READ
MORE...ALSO, Leila seeks probe on pacts signed in China...

OCTOBER 16 -Image: A Philippine Marine member of the Joint Rapid
Reaction Force posts security after executing an amphibious landing during
Exercise Balikatan 2016. DVIDSHUB/Public domain Rodrigo Duterte is a fool. Doesn’t he know that Scarborough Shoal is the place
to draw a “line in the sand”? That, with the United States, he and the
Philippines could make Xi Jinping “lose face” there? That the shoal should
be the launching point for a new concerted effort to challenge “every
Chinese overreach, early and often,” and is a dispute worthy of “indecent”
operations? He seems blissfully unaware that China’s activities around the
shoal, along with its other maritime territorial claims, are mere precursors
to China claiming the entire Pacific Ocean and achieving “global hegemony.”
READ MORE...

There are indications the Chinese Coast Guard
have left Scarborough Shoal, one week after President Rodrigo Duterte
visited China to repair strained ties, his spokesman said Friday.
PHOTO FROM ASIA MARITIMES.NET

MANILA,
OCTOBER 31, 2016 (MANILA TIMES) BY CATHERINE S. VALENTE, TMT ON ON OCTOBER 29, 2016 -
FOLLOWING President Rodrigo Duterte’s state visit to China, Chinese Coast
Guard ships are no longer in the waters around Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal,
Malacañang announced on Friday.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella told reporters
Filipino fishermen have been fishing at Panatag Shoal in the past three days
without interference from the Chinese Coast Guard.

“Regarding fishing in Scarborough Shoal, for the
past three days it has been observed that there are no longer any Chinese
Coast Guard vessels and that Filipino fishing boats are no longer being
intercepted and that they are now able to fish in the area without being
intercepted,” Abella said during a news conference.

READ MORE...

Duterte had discussed the return of Filipino
fishermen to Panatag with Chinese leaders during his state visit to China
last week.

On Sunday, while visiting typhoon-ravaged northern
Luzon, Duterte said Filipino fishermen might be able to return to the shoal,
but was not sure if the Chinese would keep their word.

“We’ll just wait for a few more days. We may be able
to return to Scarborough Shoal, the fishing by our countrymen,” he said.

Scarborough Shoal, known to Filipinos as Panatag
Shoal or Bajo de Masinloc, is a triangular chain of reefs and rocks
surrounding a 46-kilometer lagoon, spanning an area of 150 square
kilometers.

The shoal, located 124 nautical miles off Zambales,
lies within China’s nine-dash line claim, which covers about 90 percent of
the South China Sea.

China seized the shoal after a two-month standoff
with the Philippines in 2012 and barred Filipinos from fishing there.

Last July, the Philippines scored a victory in the
lingering maritime dispute when an arbitral court in The Hague ruled that
China’s nine-dash line has no legal basis.

The court said China had also violated its duty to
respect the traditional fishing rights of Filipinos when it barred them from
entering Panatag Shoal in 2012.

China refuses to recognize the court’s decision,
calling it a “mere piece of paper” and “illegal since day one.” The shoal
lies within the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone guaranteed by
the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which China is
a signatory.

FILE - In this Sept. 23, 2015, file photo, Chinese Coast Guard members
approach Filipino fishermen as they confront each other off Scarborough
Shoal in the South China Sea, also called the West Philippine Sea. The
Philippine defense chief says aerial surveillance shows Chinese coast guard
ships are still guarding a disputed shoal but Filipinos were seen fishing
there "unmolested" for the first time in years. Defense Secretary Delfin
Lorenzana said Sunday, Oct. 30, 2016, the return of Filipino fishermen to
Scarborough Shoal was "a most welcome development."
(AP Photo/Renato Etac, File)

MANILA — Philippine aerial surveillance showed Chinese coast guard
ships were still guarding a disputed shoal in the South China Sea but they
allowed Filipinos to fish “unmolested” for the first time in years, the
defense secretary said Sunday.

The return of Filipino fishermen to Scarborough
Shoal, which China effectively seized in 2012, was “a most welcome
development” because it brings back their key source of livelihood, Defense
Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said.

China granted access to the tiny, uninhabited shoal
123 nautical miles (228 kilometers) from the northern Philippines after
President Rodrigo Duterte reached out to Beijing and met Chinese President
Xi Jinping and other leaders this month. After his China trip, Duterte
announced without elaborating that Filipinos may be able to return to the
shoal soon.

A Philippine Navy plane spotted at least four
Chinese coast guard ships around the shoal during a surveillance flight over
the weekend, Lorenzana said, adding that an earlier report by the Philippine
coast guard that the Chinese had left the area was incorrect.

“Flybys of our planes reported Chinese coast guard
ships are still there but our fishermen were fishing unmolested,” Lorenzana
told The Associated Press.

It’s unclear how long China would keep the shoal
open to Filipinos or if there were any conditions attached.

DISPUTE FAR FROM OVER

Duterte made clear that the dispute over the shoal,
which the Philippines calls Bajo de Masinloc or Panatag and the Chinese
refer to as Huangyan Island, was far from over. He said he insisted in his
talks with Chinese leaders that the shoal belonged to the Philippines, but
that the Chinese also asserted their claim of ownership.

Since 2012, Chinese coast guard ships had driven
Filipino fishermen away from the area, sometimes with the use of water
cannons. Farther south in the Spratly Islands, China went on to construct
seven man-made islands in recent years despite protests from other claimants
and the U.S., which insists on freedom of navigation in what it considers
international waters.

The new development brought joy to the first
Filipinos who ventured back to Scarborough in flotillas of small fishing
boats.

“We’re happy that we were able to sail back there,”
said Gil Bauya, who returned Saturday with a huge catch of red snappers and
other fish to Cato village in the northwestern province of Pangasinan.

“They just let us fish,” Bauya said, referring to
three Chinese coast guard ships fishermen saw at the shoal from a distance.
“We were waiting what they would do, but they didn’t do anything like
deploying small rubber boats to chase us like they used to do.”

After three days of fishing, Bauya said they ran out
of ice to preserve their catch and had to sail back home for the All Souls’
Day holiday. Amid the festive air in Cato, where villagers helped them
unload their bumper catch, Bauya said he and his crewmen plan to travel back
to Scarborough in the coming week.

Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told
reporters in Beijing on Saturday that China’s withdrawal from Scarborough
Shoal would be welcomed by Washington.

He said it would be consistent with an international
arbitration ruling in July that invalidated Beijing’s sweeping territorial
claims in the South China Sea. The ruling said that both Filipinos and
Chinese can fish at the shoal, but China ignored it./rga

Filipino fishermen unload their catch in this photo taken on Oct. 15, 2016.
Over the last few days, fishermen from Pangasinan have been able to fish in
waters near Panatag Shoal without being chased away by Chinese ships. An
international arbitral court ruled in July that Panatag was a common fishing
ground open to fishermen from the Philippines, China and other countries.

INFANTA, Pangasinan, Philippines – Fisherman Gilbert
Baoya came home yesterday from a fishing trip to Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal
off Zambales province with a substantial catch.

“Happy days are here again,” he said in Filipino.

Baoya and seven companions were able to drop nets at
Panatag Shoal “freely and undisturbed” by the Chinese, who used to chase
them away from the area.

He said they attempted to fish in the area on Oct.
24 but were rudely turned away by Chinese coast guards.

READ MORE...

They tried their luck the following day and got a
pleasant surprise when no Chinese came to harass them or ask them to go
away.

“We were really rejoicing,” he said. They continued
fishing until Oct. 28 when they ran out of ice in their fish hold.

But Philippine and US officials said they are still
verifying if the Chinese had indeed left the shoal.

The Chinese took control of the shoal in 2012 after
a standoff with the Philippine Navy, which tried to arrest Chinese poachers
on several boats.

A UN-backed international arbitral tribunal based in
The Hague has declared Panatag Shoal a common fishing ground, and
invalidated China’s massive claim in the South China Sea and West Philippine
Sea. The ruling was on a case filed by Manila.

On his return from China last Oct. 21, President
Duterte said Filipinos would likely be “allowed” by the Chinese to fish
again at Panatag Shoal, which is also called Bajo de Masinloc.

Baoya, skipper of the fishing boat Ruvina, said he
used to fish at the shoal three times a month in good weather until 2012. He
said their income suffered greatly due to Chinese harassment.

Fishing boats like this in Barangay Cato, Infanta,
Pangasinan are now free to fish in disputed Scarborough Shoal.
(Tita Roces) PHOTO FROM PUNCH.DAGUPAN.COM BLOG

Filipino fishermen, he said, were monitoring
developments in the area and they learned recently that Duterte had asked
Chinese President Xi Jinping to allow Filipinos to fish in the area.

“Maybe that was the good fruit of their talk,” Baoya
said.

He said they had a huge catch consisting of first
class isdang bato, grouper, maya maya, tanigue and bakalaw, among others.

“We hope this will be the start of renewed good
fishing of Filipinos in Panatag,” Baoya said.

He noted Chinese coast guard ships were still at
Panatag “but they are kind now.”

He said while they were at the shoal two members of
the Philippine Coast Guard rode on their boat to make video recording of the
situation.

“Finally, we are free again to fish in Kalburo,”
said Gilbert’s wife Wilma, using Panatag’s local name.

Not sure yet

Town officials, meanwhile, expressed elation at
reports of Filipino fishermen now being allowed by the Chinese to drop nets
at Panatag.

But barangay captain (village chief) Charlito
Maniago told The STAR they could not yet confirm the development as most
fishermen in the town fish only in payaw or fish enclosure as they were
afraid to get near the shoal.

Maniago said those who go out to fish log out in
their barangay and indicate their destination based on an agreement with
local leaders and with the Philippine Coast Guard.

With the agreement, authorities would be aware of
any fishing expedition so they can take appropriate measures in case of
emergencies or inclement weather.

“I verified in the barangay hall through my
administrator if there are fishermen who went out the past days going to
Scarborough Shoal but based on record, there is none,” Maniago said.

“If they did not log out, that means they escaped,”
he added. It takes about a week for fishermen to return from Panatag.

Those who logged out said they would fish only in
the payaw area, which is about 20 nautical miles from Panatag Shoal, Maniago
said.

Payaw is a square fish structure made of steel
floating on the water with leaves at the bottom that attract fish, he said.

But he said there is a possibility that fishermen in
a payaw would try to venture into Panatag Shoal if they get good news from
other fishermen returning from the shoal.

“In our area, not all who logged out to fish went to
Panatag Shoal, especially when situations became different when our
fishermen started being harassed by Chinese coast guard then,” he said.

A fisherman could be said to have made it to Panatag
Shoal if he had first class fish catch like grouper and maya-maya.

“So far, they only have tambakol, tuna, among
others,” he said.

Barangay kagawad (councilman) Jowe Legaspi said a
cousin, Joseph Daruca, joined a group of fishermen intent on getting to
Panatag. But he was not sure if they reached the shoal.

“Based on information I got, they went there but I
am not aware up to where or how close they reached,” he said. It takes about
two hours by ordinary fishing boat to reach Panatag Shoal from the payaw.

“It’s far but it is big and wide like that of Dasol
Bay,” he said.

Fishermen would visit Panatag Shoal from the third
week of February to June, he said.

Legaspi used to have eight boats. He sold seven of
them when he started losing money when the Chinese barred them from Panatag.

Still Verifying

In Manila, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said
the Philippine Coast Guard reported that Chinese ships have not been sighted
at Panatag Shoal in the last three days, but he added the report has to be
validated.

Lorenzana told the AP the Philippine Air Force plans
to conduct aerial surveillance of the shoal to check the situation.

After seizing Panatag, the Chinese went on to
construct seven man-made islands near Palawan.

WELCOMED BY WASHINGTON

Deputy US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told
reporters in Beijing yesterday that China’s withdrawal from Panatag Shoal,
even if it were a product of bilateral talks with Duterte, “would be a
positive development” welcomed by Washington.

He said it would be consistent with an international
arbitration ruling in July that invalidated Beijing’s sweeping territorial
claims in the South China Sea. The ruling said that both Filipinos and
Chinese can fish at the shoal, but China ignored it and its coast guard
continued to block Filipino fishermen.

Blinken said that the US would continue to conduct
freedom of navigation exercises in the South China Sea that challenge
Beijing’s territorial claims at a time when countries in the region –
including those that are not directly involved in the China-Philippine
dispute – have signaled “increased demand” for American presence.

Duterte has attempted to repair relations with
China, but he has also ruffled feathers with the Philippines’ longtime ally
by threatening to scale down military ties with the US and hurling insults
at President Barack Obama.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the US
was still assessing reports that Chinese boats have left Panatag Shoal and
Filipinos have resumed fishing there.

“We hope it is certainly not a temporary measure. We
would like it to be a sign that China and the Philippines are moving toward
an agreement on fishing access at Scarborough that would be in accordance
with the July 12 arbitral decision,” Toner told reporters in Washington.

After visiting Beijing last week, Duterte said
without elaborating that Filipino fishermen “may” be able to return to
Panatag after he discussed the territorial rift with Chinese leaders.

He said he insisted in his talks with Chinese
leaders that the shoal belonged to the Philippines, but that the Chinese
also asserted their claim of ownership.

“If the Chinese ships have left, then it means our
fishermen can resume fishing in the area. We welcome this development,”
Lorenzana said.

“Our fishermen have not been fishing there
since 2012. This will return to them their traditional source of
livelihood.” – Jaime Laude, AP

STA. CRUZ, Zambales, Philippines – Residents here
look forward to a merry Christmas after learning that fellow Filipino
fishermen have gone back to Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal and returned home
with a big catch unharmed.

Tabat was quoting other fishermen who arrived
yesterday from Scarborough Shoal aboard two bancas in Cato, Pangasinan.

He said his village learned about the fishermen’s
successful catch from excited fish buyers in their village.

READ MORE...

“They said there is no more fear. Fishing is
continuous now,” he added, noting his fellow fishermen were talking and
rejoicing about the positive development.

Tabat said he and his village mates are anticipating
the same good news from his cousin Weng-weng Tabat, who also went to
Scarborough Shoal the other day.

Weng-weng joined a group of fishermen in Cato,
Infanta, Pangasinan on board a fishing boat he owns.

Tabat said his cousin’s group saw other fishermen
from other areas in Scarborough Shoal.

“Okay na ang Kalburo. Masaya na ang Pasko (Kalburo
is now okay. Christmas will be merry),” he said. Kalburo is what local
fishermen in Zambales and Pangasinan call Scarborough Shoal.

According to Tabat, about a hundred men from their
village, including his son and namesake, Oscar Jr., go fishing in
Scarborough to earn a living.

He said local fishermen are overjoyed by the
positive development at Scarborough Shoal that they are looking forward to
paying off their debts soon.

He recalled the time the Chinese Coast Guard were
bullying and driving away local fishermen like him at the shoal, when their
earnings were so little they had to resort to loans to sustain their
families.

“Nabaon kami sa utang (We were deep in debt),” he
said.

Tabat said he and nine others from the village plan
to go back to Scarborough Shoal on Nov. 3. – With
Cesar Ramirez

INFANTA, Pangasinan—After being angrily chased away by a Chinese Coast Guard
vessel from the Scarborough Shoal days earlier, fisherman Gil Bauya and his
crew of eight were sailing home when they passed by a fishing boat anchored
off the rich fishing ground.

Emboldened, he immediately deployed four small
vessels to different fishing areas near the shoal and were surprised that
Chinese vessels ignored them.

The next three days were a bonanza. Bauya and his
crew filled their cargo hold with as much catch as they could, becoming the
first fishermen from Pangasinan allowed back into the shoal since March,
when other fishermen from his village tried to enter but were driven away.

Bauya, skipper of Ruvina 3, first sailed to the area
on Oct. 23, but were met by a rubber boat with five fully armed Chinese
Coast Guard personnel who intimidated them and shouted “Go, go, go!”

Fishing spree

“We had no choice but to leave,” Bauya, 58, said,
adding that he sailed some 10 nautical miles away from the shoal and fished
at the payao (artificial reefs) for two nights.

Two days later, they were returning to shore when
they passed by the shoal and spotted a fishing boat from Zambales province
anchored in the area. Chinese vessels were also seen in the shoal up until
the time the fishermen left, but they seemed not to mind.

More vessels arrive

One of the Chinese vessels even passed near Ruvina 3
but ignored them, Bauya said. “Maybe, they have been told that we can
already fish here,” he said.

Three more fishing boats from Zambales arrived on
the same day, and they too were also ignored by the Chinese Coast Guard
ships.

Ludivina Arcalas, owner of Ruvina 3, was all smiles
as she watched the boat’s crew unload tons of fish on Saturday.

“Not being able to fish in the Scarborough Shoal had
been very difficult for boat owners like me,” Arcalas said. “I hope this
will be the start for us to fish again freely in the Scarborough Shoal.”

In 2014, she said, one of her boats was destroyed by
the Chinese when they fired water cannons as it anchored at the shoal.

Officials in Pangasinan and Zambales were surprised
to hear about the fishermen’s successful return to the shoal, which came
after President Duterte’s recent state visit to China.

Goodwill visit

Officials said the issue was quietly raised in
Beijing. The trip, described as a goodwill visit, also netted millions in
promised investments from Chinese firms.

Scarborough Shoal, known to Filipinos as Panatag
Shoal or Bajo de Masinloc, is a triangular chain of reefs and rocks
surrounding a 150-square-kilometer lagoon. It is about 240 kilometers
southwest of Infanta town, and a traditional fishing ground for locals.

In 2012, China seized the shoal after a two-month
standoff with the Philippines and had since barred Filipinos from fishing
there, sometimes using water cannons to drive them away. Manila then filed a
case with a UN-backed arbitral tribunal, which in July, ruled in favor of
the Philippines.

No green light

But Beijing has steadfastly ignored the ruling.
Chinese Coast Guard vessels and Filipino fishermen have been playing a
potentially dangerous cat-and-mouse game at the shoal, ending in few
instances with the fishermen getting hurt.

Nestor Domenden, Ilocos regional director of the
Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), said the Infanta fishermen
should have waited first for the green light from Malacañang before
venturing back to the shoal.

Domenden said they were not aware of the Scarborough
trips, but stressed it was also possible that some of the Infanta boats were
registered at the BFAR in Central Luzon because they dock in Zambales
province, about 5 km from Infanta.

No formal advisories yet

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), which had earlier
discouraged fishermen from returning to the shoal to avoid a clash with the
Chinese coast guards, said it has not issued formal advisories against going
to Scarborough.

“We issued clearances [to fishermen] who wanted to
conduct fishing west of Zambales but they don’t usually specify if they
would go to

the [shoal],” PCG station commander Jonathan Marfil
told the Inquirer.

“As far as PCG Subic is concerned, we have no
advisories to the fishermen not to go or fish in Scarborough area. But I’m
not sure if they can now go near the shoal,” he said.

Fishermen were required to register but only to
track their movements and prevent them from sailing during bad weather.

Chinese vessels were still at the shoal as of Friday
when the Infanta fishermen left the area, Bauya said.

“There is no sign of Chinese Coast Guard vessels in
the area. While we do not have any official explanation for this, it sends a
positive signal regarding relations,” Abella said.

“Since three days ago there are no longer Chinese
ships, coast guard or navy, in the Scarborough area,” Defense Secretary
Delfin Lorenzana added. “If the Chinese ships have left, then it means our
fishermen can resume fishing in the area.”

Lorenzana did not explain the circumstances of the
Chinese pullout from the shoal, however. —WITH REPORTS FROM ALLAN MACATUNO,
AP AND AFP/TVJ

AMID PRESENCE OF CHINESE COAST
GUARD SHIPS More Filipino fishermen sail back to Panatag Shoal
Published October 30, 2016 1:39pm

More and more Filipino fishermen are sailing back to Panatag (Scarborough)
Shoal to fish, without any "intimidation" from the Chinese Coast Guard.

A Balitanghali report on Sunday said at least 10
Filipino fishing vessels have resumed fishing in the disputed shoal, one of
them has been at the area for the last five days, while another one for the
last three days.

The report said three Chinese Coast Guard vessels
were spotted circling the shoal's perimeter but were not "intimidating or
blocking" the Filipino fishermen.

Just three months ago, in October, Chinese Coast
Guard not only drove away Filipino fishermen but also seized their catch and
fishing equipment.

Filipino fishermen resumed fishing in Panatag Shoal,
also called Scarborough Shoal and called Huangyan by the Chinese, following
a bilateral meeting in Beijing between President Rodrigo Duterte and the
Chinese government.

Upon his return to the Philippines last week,
Duterte announced that Filipino fishermen can go back fishing in the
disputed territory.

Duterte's pronouncement came despite the supposed
informal agreement on fishing rights between China and the Philippines being
noticeably absent from the official joint statement of the Philippines and
China during Duterte's state visit.

"The reason why it was not formally announced and
the reason why it was not reduced into writing was because there was
disagreement on the use of words," said Roque, who was with Duterte in
China.

"We don't want the word 'allow' or 'permit' to be
used by China," said Roque, stressing that the Philippine contingent invoked
an arbitral ruling by an international tribunal that Filipinos, Chinese, and
Vietnamese "can look forward to Scarborough Shoal as their traditional
fishing ground."

Roque maintained that the Philippine government
"does not need to negotiate on the status of these [disputed islands]."
—Mark Merueñas/ALG, GMA News

MANILA TIMES

US assessing situation at Panatag
BY MICHAEL JOE T. DELIZO, TMT AND PATRICK ROXAS, TMT ON ON
OCTOBER 29, 2016 TOP STORIES

OCTOBER 30 -Fishermen on the boat Ruvina drop
anchor in Infanta, Pangasinan after a surprisingly bountiful sortie in
Masinloc. Their nets got filled in just a few days because suddenly, Chinese
coast guard rubber boats did not drive them away or stop them from fishing.
This, as incoming president Duterte finally met with Beijing's ambassador to
Manila.

THE United States is verifying reports that Chinese
coast guard vessels have finally opened up Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal)
to Filipino fishermen.

In a news briefing in Washington on Friday (Saturday
morning in Manila), State department spokesman Mark Toner said the US was
aware of the reports and was “assessing” the situation at Panatag.

“[We are] still assessing. We hope it is certainly
not a temporary measure,” the State department official said.

On Friday, Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella
told reporters Filipino fishermen have been fishing at Panatag Shoal in the
past three days without interference from the Chinese coast guard.

READ MORE...

Abella told AFP on Saturday: “There is no sign of
Chinese coast guard vessels in the area. While we do not have any official
explanation for this, it sends a positive signal regarding relations.”

“This is a welcome development especially for
Filipino fisherfolk,” he added.

Panatag is a triangular chain of reefs and rocks
surrounding a 46-kilometer lagoon, spanning an area of 150 square
kilometers. It was seized by China after a two-month standoff with the
Philippines in 2012.

In a case brought by the administration of former
president Benigno Aquino 3rd, the Philippines won a resounding victory at an
international arbitration tribunal in The Hague on July 12 over Beijing’s
extensive maritime claims in the area, infuriating the Asian giant.

But President Rodrigo Duterte has made a point of
not flaunting the ruling and Chinese President Xi Jinping told the
Philippine leader on his recent visit that there was no reason for hostility
and difficult topics of discussion “could be shelved temporarily.”

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had no direct
confirmation on the Chinese coast guard’s withdrawal, but spoke in a
conciliatory note on the reported resumption of Philippine fishing
activities at Panatag.

“With President Duterte’s visit, bilateral relations
have turned to a new page of all-around improvement. Under such
circumstances, it is fully possible for the two countries to return to the
track of managing disputes through consultation and focusing on
cooperation,” a ministry spokesman said during a news briefing in Beijing on
Friday.

The ministry noted that the two sides agreed to
fishing industry cooperation in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea)
during the meeting.

CPP hits US

Washington, which supported the arbitration process, however said it hoped
the deal between Manila and Beijing took the July 12 ruling into account.

“We’d like it to be a sign that China and the
Philippines are moving toward an agreement on fishing access at Scarborough
that would be in accordance with the July 12 arbitral decision,” the State
department’s Toner said.

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) pounced
on Toner’s statement and hit the US for interfering in the country’s
affairs.

“In the first place, the US has no standing
whatsoever the make any assessment in an area that is part of Philippine
maritime territory,” said the CPP in a statement. “Secondly, it is US
war-mongering and naval buildup in accordance with its US pivot to encircle
China that is at the root of the outstanding security problems in the South
China Sea.”

The CPP, which is in talks for a final peace deal
with the government, congratulated Manila and Beijing for the apparent
breakthrough.

“The settlement of the Scarborough issue underscores
what can be achieved by asserting national independence, building friendly
relations with neighboring countries and opposing outside interference,
especially war instigations by the US military,” it said.

Big catch

A report by GMA Network said fishermen from the northern province
of Pangasinan had returned to shore Saturday with “a huge load of big
species of fish” caught at Panatag Shoal.

Fishermen from Pangasinan, who ventured back to the
Panatag on Wednesday, said Chinese coast guard vessels did not intercept
them.

The fishermen described the shoal as an abundant
fishing ground, especially at the west side of the lagoon.

Fishermen from Subic, Masinloc and Santa Cruz towns
in Zambales as well as those from Bataan also started sailing toward Panatag
Shoal on Wednesday.

Sen. Leila de Lima, whom the President Rodrigo Duterte has subjected to
public scrutiny over her alleged links to illegal drug trade in the national
penitentiary, raised two issues against Duterte: the bilateral deals signed
during his recent China state visit as well as his statements about the
disputed Panatag or Scarborough Shoal. GEREMY PINTOLO,
file

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Leila de Lima said
President Duterte is digging himself into a hole in efforts to win over
China as the country’s new major strategic ally.

De Lima, whom the President has subjected to public
scrutiny over her alleged links to illegal drug trade in the national
penitentiary, raised two issues against Duterte: the bilateral deals signed
during his recent China state visit as well as his statements about the
disputed Panatag or Scarborough Shoal.

The senator said she would file a resolution calling
for an inquiry into the agreements signed in China, including the loans
committed to the Philippines.

Duterte’s state visit to China was touted to have
generated $24 billion in future investments and soft loans. But De Lima said
she suspects these are “tied loans,” thus illegal based on Philippine laws.

Under tied loans, De Lima explained, the lender
would dictate the terms in implementing the projects to be financed,
including the contractors to be hired.

“This is the essence of tied loans, which is
unconstitutional and illegal under our laws,” De Lima said, referring to the
Government Procurement Reform Act.

De Lima pointed out that all projects implemented in
the country must go through regular public bidding procedures for the
contractor, including the procurement of needed supplies and materials.

De Lima said the Duterte administration might
classify the deals with China as executive agreements just to circumvent the
procurement law.

She noted that tied loans are unconstitutional, as
stated by Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio in a
dissenting opinion he issued for one of the cases taken up by the court.

De Lima said the agreements, even if they were just
memorandums of understanding, should be scrutinized carefully to see if
these contained provisions not compatible with Philippine laws.

Asia Maritime Reviews: Is Rodrigo
Duterte a Fool, a Genius—or Both? BOOK REVIEWS
October 14, 2016

Image: A Philippine Marine member of the Joint Rapid
Reaction Force posts security after executing an amphibious landing during
Exercise Balikatan 2016. DVIDSHUB/Public domainRodrigo Duterte is a fool.

Doesn’t he know that Scarborough Shoal is the place
to draw a “line in the sand”? That, with the United States, he and the
Philippines could make Xi Jinping “lose face” there? That the shoal should
be the launching point for a new concerted effort to challenge “every
Chinese overreach, early and often,” and is a dispute worthy of “indecent”
operations? He seems blissfully unaware that China’s activities around the
shoal, along with its other maritime territorial claims, are mere precursors
to China claiming the entire Pacific Ocean and achieving “global hegemony.”

READ MORE...

LINE IN THE SAND -SCARBOROUGH SHOAL

It’s not just foreign voices. Duterte is ignoring
Filipinos too. His own predecessor took China to the Hague Tribunal and won
just a few months ago—an advantage that Duterte is calmly throwing away. A
Filipino law professor opined last April that “Southeast Asian states will
not quietly surrender sovereign rights guaranteed by international law.
Against overwhelming power, the only logical recourse is to gravitate closer
together, and join with external powers.” The expert consensus is
overwhelming: regional governments “cannot back down because that risks
encouraging China to be more aggressive still.”

Yet, in the teeth of the evidence, the government of
the Philippines has recently shown itself to be uninterested in drawing
lines in the sand, making China lose face, challenging China’s territorial
claims or joining the United States as a junior partner in checking China’s
rise. To the contrary, President Rodrigo Duterte has declared that he would
pursue an “independent posture and independent foreign policy.” Here’s what
that policy looks like.

America Doesn't Owe China Anything after the
Verdict. Washington has no obligation to help Beijing save face.

First, the Philippines has been signaling that it
will conduct bilateral territorial negotiations with China, as opposed to
America’s preferred method of lawsuits or multilateral discussions.
Bilateral talks on Chinese investment, infrastructure and trade are being
planned first, to promote cooperation before tackling the more difficult
territorial issues. “The natural effect of engaging China in other areas of
concern will precisely open the door for more open discussions of the
[maritime] dispute with the view of resolving the dispute peacefully,”
Perfecto Yasay, the Philippine secretary of foreign affairs, said in
September. This sort of practical engagement will evidently begin next week,
as Duterte visits China with hundreds of business executives in tow.

Second, President Duterte has declared that the
Philippines will no longer conduct patrols with the United States in the
South China Sea: “We will not join any expedition or patrolling the sea. I
will not allow it because I do not want my country to be involved in a
hostile act.” Lest any doubts remain, the Philippines’ defense secretary has
since confirmed it.

Third, Duterte has indicated that he wants U.S.
Special Forces to leave the Philippines, and is looking to China and Russia
for arms purchases.

Why is Duterte pursuing such irrational policies? He
apparently rejects the three myths that have seduced the American
commentariat. What myths?

1. China could gracefully submit to the Hague
ruling.

2. Amped-up American and allied “resolve” would
force China to comply.

3. China’s rejection of the ruling signifies its
rejection of international order.

Disagreeing with the ruling of a tribunal in The
Hague (not, by the way, the UN, as some erroneously claim) hardly expresses
an intention to destroy international society or dominate the Pacific.
Disagreeing with your local court doesn’t mean that want to overthrow your
nation’s government. Duterte isn’t irrational. He prefers to work with China
to resolve the dispute in a mutually beneficial way. He agrees with an
influential Filipino commentator: “Relations between China and the
Philippines should go beyond the South China Sea issue.”

Scarborough Shoal has become an abstraction for
everything commentators dislike in China: North Korea’s nuclear program,
“aerial intrusions” in the East China Sea, “seaborne incursions” in Okinawa
Prefecture, human-rights abuses, aircraft demonstrations when U.S. defense
secretaries are visiting Beijing, the “calculated humiliation” at the G-20
summit, “economic and trade matters,” and “environmental degradation” in the
South China Sea. Among such commentators, the solution is obvious:
reinforced U.S. primacy, stronger regional alliances and the trumpeting of
America’s “undoubted ability to prevail.”

To make Scarborough Shoal—or any other rock or reef
of the South China Sea—serve as an abstract picture containing every
complaint the United States has about China is foolish and dangerous.
Political scientists have shown that territory is already the single issue
any two states are most likely to fight over. Packing all other issues of
contention into a territorial dispute—an exercise in grab-bag hawkishness—is
a certain way to enflame the territorial dispute and to make it unsolvable.

There is nothing new here. In the spring of 1913,
Russian foreign minister Sergey Sazonov told Serbian prime minister Nikola
Pašić, who was eager to extend Serbian territory into the former Ottoman
state of Albania, that Russia was not going to risk a war with
Austria-Hungary over a few small towns. Pašić replied:

Here it is not a matter of Djakova, Dibra and
Scutari, but the question is: Is Russia with its friends stronger or weaker
than Austria and its friends? The whole Slavic world and everybody else will
consider Russia defeated through the policy and threats of Austria. The
belief and confidence in Russia will not only be weakened, but it will be
annihilated, and the Austrian-German policy will triumph.

This was what dispute abstraction looked like before
World War I. Aware that Russia had no actual territorial interest in the
small towns of Albania, Pašić abstracted the issue into one of prestige and
credibility, attempting to make the dispute a “trial of strength” between
Russia and Austria-Hungary (and its ally Germany).

Today in the South China Sea, the Philippines is
opting out of dispute abstraction. Duterte apparently cares about rehab
centers more than unpopulated reefs, and has decided that the costs of
antagonizing China outweigh the benefits of cooperating with it.

But
segments of America’s foreign policy elite disagree. These elites desire to
abstract the territorial disputes of the South and East China Seas into a
modern-day “trial of strength.” That is what all the tough talk of
“indecent” naval operations and drawing lines in the sand is about. The
specific issue hardly matters. According to these elites, China must be put
in its place. The way to do this is to reassert American primacy.

Such a perspective is myopic, ahistorical, and
foolish.

In 1914, a trial of strength turned into a world war. In 432 BC,
the Corinthians convinced the Spartans that they should stand up to Athens
using four arguments.

First, they said, Athens was growing stronger and
Sparta had done nothing to check its growing power.

Second, the Corinthians
explained how the Athenians “gradually encroach upon their neighbors,” or
what critics today call “salami slicing.”

Third, they declared, “The
likeliest way of securing peace is . . . to make it perfectly plain that one
is resolved not to tolerate aggression” (Thucydides, 1.71)—i.e., to pursue a
policy of deterrence.

And finally, the Corinthians argued that Sparta had to
maintain its “greatness.” Today, we say “primacy,” but the idea is the same.

Back in 432 BC, the Spartans were convinced by the argument of the
Corinthians, and in 431 a war broke out between Sparta and Athens that would
last twenty-seven years and end the Athenian Golden Age. Today, we—the
United States and China—risk walking down the same road to war.

DUTERTE IS NO FOOL

Duterte is no fool. He has stepped off the road to
war by rejecting the abstraction of disputes. That means considering each
dispute individually, seeking to understand the other side’s argument,
refraining from pursuing a
moralistic or legalistic position, and
recognizing that in a world with multiple great powers, the only way to live
at peace is to ignore areas of minor disagreement and to respect one
another’s vital interests. If, in your reading of history, you find that
being pushy is a better way to get along, by all means, speak up. If not,
then no more myopia, abstraction and presumption about other states’
purported interests, please.

Jared McKinney is a Non-Resident Fellow at the
Pangoal Institute in Beijing, a Junior Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for
the National Interest in Washington, DC, and an incoming Ph.D student in
International Relations at the S. Rajaratnam School of International
Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.